


Neuroplasticity in the Key of B♭ Minor

by Varynova



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:14:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28111491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Varynova/pseuds/Varynova
Summary: The diminution of the seventh sea. After an unforeseen tragedy, Jade Harley resolves to make the best of her new situation.
Relationships: Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	Neuroplasticity in the Key of B♭ Minor

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [Julia](https://twitter.com/DEATHMETALJOCK) and [Fish](https://twitter.com/TeaNPens) for beta reading and providing commentary on drafts of this work! As well, thank you Fish for providing the gorgeous illustration of Jodie that served as one of the major inspirations for this piece!

So what happens when a Heroic death gets turned on its head, transformed into something beautiful? Is it possible to turn a tragedy into something more meaningful than the sum of its parts? Well, I know, and you do, too; you see, we’re the same person! Sort of-- two minds, in gestalt, in one sprite body. You were Jade Harley, and I, Rose Lalonde, but now?

Imagine this: a curt black bob peeks from beneath a headband, framed with a shock of white just at the forelock. Its wellspring? Two ears, white like an arctic fox's, craned forward with rapt attention; beneath those, milk-grey eyes, sharp and luminant despite their snowy tone, framed in great circular glasses. The coy and churlish smile of a woman who considers herself quarter dog (materially), more than slightly cat (spiritually), and the rest built to fully realize the vision of becoming the brightest star streaking through the cosmos. And, of course, the symbol on her shirt to match, merged from the two, a semidog demisquiddle in purple-- to match the sleeves. Why, the pink shirtcollar, pink-and-black maxi skirt, striped pink-purple-black tights, and rosy pumps? Well, those are just fashion, something to which neither of her constituent selves were strangers.

|   
---|---  
  
She comes out swinging, of course! See, Rose doesn't remember how she died, so both of them are probably ready for all hell to have broken loose as they felt themselves being yanked out of the bubbles.

Heck, before she died, that's how Rose lived every day of her life: if you don't swing first, you'll get knocked out by the first punch you don't see coming. Funny, a girl with a frame like hers, four-foot-nine soaking wet, having the mentality of a street-boxer.

Jade had never told her, but she admired that about Rose. As for herself? Well, Jade hadn't gotten a taste of the bubbles in ages-- she was separated from them for the three whole years it took her and her sister to sail to their newfound reality. June could access them in that time, but Jade found herself oddly unable to slip into them while she dreamt. Something about her powers, she supposed. But her respite there was brief.

This newly formed Jodie-- (or Josie, perhaps, or Radie? I have yet to decide which I like the most--) turns her head to Kanaya, those intelligent ears flicking to the woman who not just a moment ago she regarded as a lost love, out of reach for her transference between realities, as well as for her shunting into spritedom. But, the newfound sprite realizes, none of that matters, for a whole universe of possibility could now be realized through the sheer confluence of fate, a culmination of a whole adventure's turmoil and struggle.

Jade hadn’t dreamt of the bubbles, but she hadn’t needed to: in solitude, she had imagined how she could come to live with her closest childhood friend for both their eternities, to learn to use their powers together to never be alone again. And now she knew. It would be just as sweet as she had ever hoped.

It had all been worth it.

Jodie grins, and rushes to hug her still-living half-future-wife, a woman she's been forced to watch be reduced to atoms an infinite number of times in an infinite number of universes.

JODIE: Well well well well!  
JODIE: I suppose it's Finally time I get to meet all you little tidbits and morsels something proper hmmm?  
JODIE: You may call me Jodie Harlonde!  
JODIE: Well Jodie Laloley if you're feeling a little twee about it.  
JODIE: And if we're good enough friends you can call me Jodes. ;)  
KANAYA: What On Alternia  
KANAYA: Rose Is That You  
ROSE: What? It must be that sprite of me from a moment ago; but she slipped away before she said where she was going! Surely you remember, given the ignominy of my mortification, not to mention rolling on the floor and laughing so hard I thought I might emit.  
ROSE: But she wasn’t merged--  
JODIE: Oh but Rose I am you!  
JODIE: I'm the you who died in that other horrible timeline.  
JODIE: But June brought me back so here I am to help be your guide!  
JODIE: Not that you all seem to need much guidance. I suppose you're already well enough on your way to saving yourselves.  
VRISKA: Finally!  
VRISKA: I was worried we'd 8low ALL our kernels on 8astard conjug8tions like Arquius over there.  
VRISKA: Love you 8ig guy!  
VRISKA: Anyway, sorry a8out.  
Erm.  
VRISKA: All that! Hey, as a sprite, you're not a8le to 8e 8rainjacked 8y Condy again, right?

JADE: hold on rose  
JADE: you dont have to sugarcoat this for me!  
JADE: its okay! i get it  
JADE: if im a sprite that means i must have died  
JADE: its not like ive never died :p  
ROSE: Yes, but...  
JADE: remember when i got blown up by shaving cream??  
JADE: or died flinging june out of the way of prospit just to get stuffed, brought back to life, then die AGAIN???  
JADE: those were way more senseless than this  
JADE: anyway, tell me more!  
JADE: im so eager to know what happens next!!  
ROSE: If you say so.

So where was I-- yes, Jodie has just met the bulk of the remaining, living cast, forgiven Vriska for what I think we can all determine was an absolutely necessary act of violence to correct the Condesce's imminent and total victory over the entire timeline, and agreed with both the nonspritely halfself of her which still lives as well as her future-wife that the three of them would not at all be incompatible in--

JADE: rose tell me youre not just doing THIS for my benefit!!!  
ROSE: Doing which? Merely noting the confabulation possible between an amalgam of our two selves alongside a still-living version of me, and Kanaya?  
JADE: well yeah i suppose  
JADE: i mean yes its too soon!  
JADE: but also what was that about vriska??  
JADE: wow, when you said that i  
JADE: it just feels like im getting walloped all of a sudden, and--  
JADE: oooghhhh  
JADE: i mean i know you said i died but  
JADE: the last thing i remember was the three long years i spent on that boat  
JADE: just waiting around, practicing my powers  
JADE: getting every little thing i wanted to say to anybody down on paper so i wouldnt forget  
JADE: and i had just gotten off the boat and i was so excited to meet jake finally, and the rest of them...  
ROSE: And?  
JADE: and...  
JADE: and now youre saying it just gets to be...  
JADE: easy?  
JADE: like all the works already done?  
ROSE: Well, for you, it very well might be.  
ROSE: The Condesce took control of you-- by way of your canine facets-- and it seemed you were poised to wreak havoc on the session.  
ROSE: But then...  
ROSE: I believe we all underestimated Vriska's capacity to...  
ROSE: Well, do what needed to be done, in her eyes.

JADE: so when they couldnt deprogram me from what i was doing  
JADE: she  
ROSE: Yes.  
JADE:  
JADE: ...  
ROSE: You were the one who asked me not to sugarcoat things, Jade.  
ROSE: You were the one who said you had lived through death, before.  
JADE: but  
JADE: but all those other times i got back up  
JADE: not as a sprite  
JADE: not for long i mean  
ROSE: Yes, that's true. But Skaia provides many avenues for resuscitation, and this was the one I demanded we use on you, since Jane's the only one with healing powers.

JADE: yknow ive been a sprite before  
JADE: i remember hating it?  
JADE: the sun burned too brightly  
JADE: even when i closed my eyes it still shone through, just  
JADE: blaring like a car horn in my doggy senses  
JADE: (not that ive ever heard a car horn in real life)  
JADE: have i just gotten used to it?  
JADE: or did being dead start to burn into me too and now i cant feel it anymore? because im starting to break apart?  
JADE: see maybe sprites are just the same person with all the same damage to the meat  
JADE: but copied into the sprites personality like some kind of flawed transfer  
JADE: so when i died and the synapses faded and the neural connections started to go grey  
JADE: and the signals went unpotentiated all through my brain-  
ROSE: -luckily it doesn't work like that. The kernelsprites bring back the ideal version of yourself, the 'you' you most want to be, correct?  
JADE: so... when jadesprite...  
ROSE: The person you most want to be in that moment. Please, let’s not dwell.  
JADE: okay, but how... how do you know that, though?  
ROSE: Well, it's simple. Surely you've seen the ways we visualize the brain, yes? How we understand it to function, the metaphors we have for consciousness, thought, inspiration?  
JADE: i guess?  
ROSE: The peal of a neuron flashing its data over the synaptic cleft to stream in from the eyeballs?  
ROSE: What is that but the quintessence of light itself?  
JADE: oh  
JADE: well so long as you get it!  
JADE: at times like this im glad you have such a way with words  
ROSE: So. Would you like me to continue my chronology of events?  
JADE: i suppose so  
JADE: i guess i have to know what happens next!

Wait, I haven’t finished my recapitulation, yet! You see, just a bit earlier, June and Roxy arrived from their adjacent universe, since both of the ones here died. June, with whatever windy powers have let her hop from timeline to timeline-- I haven’t figured that part out, just yet-

JADE: your powers cant see that?  
ROSE: Quiet, let me finish-

She brought her planet with her, and that’s where my body was buried, yes?

JADE: and you still dont remember how you died?

So Jaspersprite dug it up, and apparently was a clever enough kitty to put it into a sprite on his own, so-

JADE: wait, what happened to everyone but june and roxy??  
JADE: and what happened to them in the new timeline???

-and when I found out what Vriska had done, naturally I decided it was time for my own meddling to come into play, since I feared that without you-

JADE: rose youre ignoring me! what are you trying to stop me from finding out???  
ROSE: They cried, you know. When they brought us back. They were overjoyed, because they were terrified that they had lost us.  
JADE: roxy cried for you  
JADE: and the rest of them cried for roxy, even when it turned out to have been short-lived  
JADE: and a new roxy was coming with june from  
JADE: another universe, i guess?  
JADE: nobody cried for me  
JADE: for some reason, im just so sure all of a sudden  
JADE: they were going to leave me  
JADE: tie a little string around my finger to say  
JADE: 'hey if this bitch wakes up make sure she doesnt go evil again or well have to put her down just like the first time'  
JADE: even in the softest version, where they cant bear for me to be the one of the eight of us sacrificed for the good of everyone else  
JADE: i was always just out of frame

ROSE: You... can see that stream of possibility?  
ROSE: Oh, I know what it is. You must be able to access my powers when we're like this.

JADE: yeah rose  
JADE: i guess so?  
JADE: yeah i can see everything you can  
JADE: and feel it too  
ROSE: Aah.  
JADE: i must be sounding too bitter though  
JADE: im sure it was just luck!  
JADE: i suppose its just a marvel nobodys died before  
JADE: well, in a way we couldnt come back from  
ROSE: I suspect such deaths get harder and harder to achieve as the story goes on. The investment of the audience is one thing, but for another, even Skaia recognizes the need for triumph, despite everything which may fall upon our heads.  
ROSE: Albeit true what Strider said about us 'not having arcs'.

JADE: and yet youre trying to convince me everything will be okay  
ROSE: What do you fear is the case, then? What do you believe I’m preparing you for?  
JADE: well  
JADE: when you said that about vriska i got this flash  
JADE: like  
JADE: like couldnt it be that this is what happens in my imagination when my hyperflooded synapses pop and boil  
JADE: and youre here only to help me through it  
JADE: ysee so little that youre saying even makes sense  
JADE: another reality where everything just  
JADE: works out fine?  
JADE: those dont happen to me  
JADE: i think youre not telling me a story because you need to explain how im in a sprite with you  
JADE: because im not  
JADE: i think youre a part of me  
JADE: that knows im not ready to hear whats really happening  
JADE: isnt that right  
JADE: 'rose'  
ROSE: Jade, I'm so sorry.  
ROSE: It’s only been an instant...  
ROSE: But there’s nothing you can do.  
JADE: no no no no no  
JADE: rose why am i doing this to myself  
ROSE: Jade, at a time like this you must find solace where you can. Nothing else matters, now.  
ROSE: There's nothing left to struggle against.  
ROSE: The outcome is decided, and all that's left is to choose how you feel about it  
ROSE: Wouldnt you rather take this time to understand it all, to come to terms with whats happening to you?  
ROSE: surely you must have a clearer understanding of why this is so important, at the very least?  
ROSE: or would you rather i tell you another story?

JADE: but this wasnt even how it happened  
JADE: i didnt die a heroic death before the condesce could use me as a weapon  
JADE: jane was there...  
JADE: and those red lines that cut into her skin were so scary!  
JADE: but i have a feeling that was my fault :(  
ROSE: jade...  
JADE: vriska didnt kill me...  
JADE: that other girl crushed me under my own house  
JADE: scared of my powers  
JADE: because they were the cause of all of this  
JADE: this death isnt heroic at all is it rose  
ROSE:  
ROSE: no

JADE: im not coming back  
JADE: am i rose  
ROSE: im afraid not

JADE: i  
JADE: i used to hope it would be important  
JADE: i knew my suffering would mean something, but this?  
JADE: this isnt a reward  
JADE: this isnt worth it  
JADE: this is the last howl of a beaten, bloodied dog in the street  
JADE: useless now that its been turned against its former owners...  
ROSE: nobody would choose this for themselves, jade  
ROSE: but we cannot always choose the ending to the story  
ROSE: dave was right, after all  
JADE: please  
JADE: please dont make my last thoughts be about dave  
ROSE: sorry  
JADE: but everything you said...  
JADE: about how  
JADE: we could be together  
JADE: id never be alone again  
JADE: that all your knowledge and all my powers  
JADE: they can bring us--  
JADE: bring jodie, wherever she exists--  
JADE: some kind of happiness?  
JADE: wholeness?  
JADE: or at least... closure?  
ROSE: i dont know  
JADE: rose  
JADE: please  
ROSE: im sorry jade  
ROSE: even as the last fragment of yourself which youve permitted to dream, i cant lie to you  
ROSE: i cant see that timeline  
ROSE: you dont have that power  
ROSE: you dont have the power to know that everything turns out alright  
JADE: ...  
JADE: okay  
JADE: well  
JADE: at least tell me a story, then?  
ROSE: Fair enough.  
ROSE: I suppose...  
ROSE: I suppose that could be nice.

JODIE: There were once two confused, immortal little girls, who couldn't stand to be apart for even a single minute out of the day...

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Jodie Laloley will certainly return-- in much more fluffy contexts than this-- soon, but I appreciate first being allowed to indulge in the rare, poignant Brain Ghost Rose...


End file.
